New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1887-02-02

answered, without ME. Come along
the river rising like fury
Is it very wide?" asked .
! %, not more'n a good stretch from
here to the dry land, but deep, over
SIX feet. / should say, and rising"
But the bed, Bobbery," I said,
"and the other things.
Well, we must Just leave them un.
til it. all right again.
"NVill it ever be all right?" l asked.
berry.
He was such splendid chap, sir,
was Robbery, and so clever! Hetook
| the two chairs that were drifting
about the room and tied them togeth-
er, and then we waded across to the
window and stood Upon the sill.
Il think it's jolly fun said Robbery,
"1f you could only see show your boats
bobbing up and down in front here!
Get in quick or can't hold her. Here!
| port her helm, or something! Are you
all right?"
"It's splendid" I said come along.''
| But when Robbery put his foot on
the unsteady raft she went down on
one side with a plunge. Never mind"
he said; you've Just got to push
yourself ashore with this pole as
| straight as you can go, and | will fol-
low
l thought that was true or I never
would have left Robbery. I took the
| pole he gave me and went out on
the restless waters that I felt were
blood-red where the setting sun had
touched them. People on the oppo-
site side cheered, and cried and called
me, and Robbery behind called out
once Or twice, "Ship ahoy!" in a
shrill voice that I knew and loved bet
ter than anything on earth and once
heard him say fa;ntly--he seemed
SO far away-"In port at last"
At last! ..
The people on shore had ceased their
shouts of excitement and encourage,
ment; the light had died utterly away.
In an awful silence and an awful
darkness jumped to land and held
out my hands.
Robbery! Bobbery!'' I cried, 81
want to thank you"
Did Robbery hear, sir, do you
think? Do people hear anything, do
people understand anything after
they have gone away?
I only knew that the awful silence
was turning me to stone, that the aw,
full darkness was rising like a stone
wall between me and Robbery, and
was afraid. When l called no one an
swered, and I was glad. II his voice
was silent any other voice would have
maddened me just then, and l wanted
nothing more to tell me all the truth
I learned through the silence on land
and sea how God had answered my
! prayer.
They told me afterward how the
plank he was launching to help him.
self to the shore drifted away from
his hand and was out of sight directly,
how they would have saved him ii
they could and how, when they be-.
gan to shout to him directions, he
made a sign for silence and stood
straight upon the sill, with the sunset
creeping all about him and the waters
washing at his feet. They wondered
why he had made no effort to reach
the shore with me; they used to won
der for long after why he had stood so
silent, with his eager eyes and restless
feet so strangely still. 1 knew, OF
course; but what right had any one
else to come between me and Bob
berry? It wouldn't have done any
one any good to know what l
knew-that Robbery wouldn't let
me lose the faintest chance; thought
my blind, helpless life quite as
we'll worth saving as his own. l
would have done the samefor him, sir,
any day, for Robbery and me were al
ways fond OF each other.
! The story's been longer than
thought, sir, but just the evening and
the floods again, and your wanting to
know about the cross, brought it back
to me like the same evening somehow,
an it's company like to talk of the
lad. And Robbery? he just died, sir;
and the folks thought such a deal OF
him that they collected q bit to set
me up, and | took half of the money
just to put this little cross by the
river side, for we always divided the
coppers, sir; and havn't forgot him
not in these two years!
| That's all, sir-just all about Bob
1 berry.